Genre: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Titan Publishing
Published: 2017
Reviewer Rating: 
Reviewer: SJ Higbee
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I saw this one on the library shelves, liked the look of it, and notwithstanding the fact that my TBR pile has reached crazy proportions, I took it home.
Siggy J. Alexie is a troubled young woman. Taken from her family as a toddler, abandoned by her adoptive mother into the foster care system as a preteen, she is haunted by a history of abandonment, abuse, and mental health issues. She is also haunted by a demon. Siggy sees ghosts and demons, has conversations with beings she knows aren’t really there, suffers from cluster headaches, coffee addiction, and terminal bad language, and has a hot temper that just won’t quit. She lives in a crappy trailer in the woods in Bearpaw, Michigan, alone, just the way she likes it. But then she goes and does something heroic and screws up her rotten life even further.
That’s as much as the very chatty blurb I’m willing to share, but do be warned, it continues at some length and gives at least a couple of major plot points that you’d be better off reading within the story. The other warning: if you are offended by strong language, then this isn’t the book for you. There is extensive use of the f word throughout, because as Siggy admits–she is a potty-mouth. However, I really warmed to the punchy first-person narrative which manages to portray an abused, troubled young woman without a scrap of whining or self pity. In fact, despite the bleakness of her life, she is frequently very funny, which worked well in bonding me to her and ensuring I really cared about what happens to her.
Her life doesn’t make for pretty reading–the foster-care system she ends up in is clearly broken and has left her to fend for herself with a sub-standard education and dealing with issues she shouldn’t have to. As well as having to cope with a demon who constantly plagues her.
I really like this aspect of the book. The demon can be taken at face value as one of the otherworldly creatures inhabiting this fantasy novel–or the demon can be seen as the personification of her own self-loathing. Either way works well and I enjoyed the fact that Wolf gives us an opportunity to read that layer into the story. The writing is sensually very rich; we know most of the time what Siggy is smelling and how the landscape impacts upon her as senses as well as emotionally. Not only does this give us another layer of information, it also underlines the impression of Siggy’s otherness. Of course, with such a vivid protagonist, we also need a suitably horrible antagonist… and Wolf delivers a couple, who are also both women, which I really enjoyed.
The other interesting aspect of this book is there is no romantic attachment, which, given Siggy’s messed up emotional state, was something of a relief. She isn’t in a fit state to be falling love. Yet all too often in this genre, a heroine staggers away from a series of incidents dire enough to have Superwoman buckling at the knees, only to fling herself into the arms of a handily available man, professing her love. Frankly, she’d be better off with a long, hot shower and a lie-down. Alone.
All in all, this is a really good start to what promises to be a fascinating and engrossing series. Recommended to urban fantasy fans who like gritty, vivid protagonists and a well-told story.
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